Victor hugo mathushek



(No Model.)

V. H. MATHUSHEK.

PIANO FORTE.

Patented Mar. 10, 18.91.

/NVENTOH W/ TNESSES f www wmf/@5W UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VICTOR IIUGO MATIIUSHEK, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

PIANO- FORTE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 447,963, dated March 10, 1891.

Application tiled April 24, 1890.

T0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known thatI, VICTOR HUGO MATHU- sHEK, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Piano-Fortes, of which the tollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in piano-fortes, and by means of this invention I obtain an improved sounding-board, as set forth in the following specification and claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in whicl1- Figure l is a plan viewof a sounding-board. Fig. 2 is a section along :t a, Fig. l.

In the drawings, the letter A indicates the soundingboard. B is the sounding-board bridge, and O is the hitch-pin block.

The soundingboard consists of two layers of wood, which are united to one another with the grain runningin different directions. By having two layers ot' wood A A constituting the sounding-board I dispense with the cross ribs or bars, which were heretofore placed under or at the back of the sounding-boards. These bars are objectionable, especially in warm climates, since if the sounding-board buckled or because of the unequal thickness of the sounding-board and the bars the expansicn and contraction of the board and the bars were unequal the bars would spring oit. By gluing the two layers of wood A A to- Serial No. 349,345. (No model.)

gether along their entire common surface said layers are so firmly secured that they will not buckle or spring apart. Furtheru more, the screws E, passing through the hitchpin block C and sounding-board into the supporting-frame D, prevent the layers A Afrom parting.

As the layers A A are preferably made of approximately the same thickness, said layers are not liable to expand or contract unequally. I have also found that when the sounding-board is composed of two layers of wood with the grain running in different directions such sounding-board is not liable to'crack.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination, with the sounding-board composed ot two layers of wood united with the grain ruiming in different directions, of a sounding-board bridge B, made to rest on the sounding -board, a hitch-pin block C, supporting-frame D, and the screws E, passing through the hitch-pin block and the sounding-board layers into the supporting-frame, substantially as described.

In testimonywhereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

VICTOR HUGO MATIIUSHEK.

Witnesses:

J. VAN SANTvooRD, E. F. KAsTENHUBEE. 

